Our Flat

As many period conversion buildings go in London, ours came with a few defects (which we say adds to the charm of living in such a historic city):

First. The walls are more similar in width to sushi rolling paper than to actual wood.  When our neighbor’s above us walk from one room to the other, it sounds like they are racing Cheetah on the power pad for Track & Field on original Nintendo.

Second. Our shower is actually one of those old-fashioned heavy porcelain bathtubs and all of the shower knobs are hard steel.  I needed to be at work early the morning after our first night in our flat, so I woke up at 530 to take a shower, the first shower either of us had taken since we moved in.  In my groggy state, I turned the hot water knob on full blast and immediately snapped to attention as the heavy knob that determines whether you are taking a bath or a shower came flying off of the wall and slammed into the porcelain tub.  It sounded like a bomb had gone off.  As a result of the missing knob, scalding hot water was shooting all over the bathroom and as I risked the future of my skin to turn the hot water off, I was stymied in my efforts as the hot water knob came off of its connector and crashed straight down onto the porcelain.  Bomb number 2.  Actually they probably didn’t sound like bombs to our neighbors, I think it actually translated as “Hi everybody, we are your new loud and obnoxious neighbors from America, fulfilling all of the stereotypes within 15 hours of moving in.”

Other than that, we love our flat.